Sleeping Beauty Retold
by Little Snow
Summary: What if there never was a Prince Charming? It is the tale of Sleeping Beauty with a twist, written in a story-telling format. Reviews are most welcomed.


_Once upon a time there was a princess._

The little bundle of joy was wrapped in a pink silken sheet, and it gurgled happily from her crib. Her tiny hand reached out for her mother as her whole face shone brightly with delight. The Queen was bursting with pride as she picked her baby up to a warm embrace, and gave her a kiss up on her forehead. The King rested his hand upon the shoulders of his wife, as he whispered words of comfort and praises in her ear. The both of them beamed upon their princess.

_The christening of the princess was lavishly done with everlasting trumpeting, gifts, and food. The people from all over the kingdom had streamed into the halls of the castle to witness and congratulate on the newborn princess._

The King tilted his head as he remembered the invitations he ordered to be given to the fairies, He, himself knew that he was not a very wealthy King, and therefore he only had 12 golden fairy plates .Thus, he had no choice but to invite only 12 from 13 fairies of his kingdom, and to leave out the last fairy from the celebration.

_Before the twelfth fairy could give her blessing, the uninvited thirteenth fairy suddenly appeared, and for her vicious revenge, she screeched out a curse before disappearing,_

"_On her fifteenth birthday, she will prick herself on a needle, and die!"_

The eerie silence woke her mind. Her head pounded uncomfortably, as images of the last event that happened filled her head. She remembered that a few days after her fifteenth birthday, she started to explore the castle. She had climbed up the stairs to the supposedly vacant northern tower, for she was curious by sounds of something that was rattling so merrily up there. She remembered that the sight that greeted her was an old woman who seemed to be making threads with a machine she had never seen before. That old woman had also asked her if she wanted to try… _spinning_? That word still seemed foreign to her. Then, she remembered pricking herself on the needle and nothing else after that except darkness.

_The twelfth fairy, who was well known for her kindness, felt sympathetic to the princess and decided to soften the curse,_

"_The princess will not die. Instead, she will fall into a century's sleep, in which she will then be woken by the kiss of true love."_

The fluttering of her lashes felt heavy as they begin to open for the first time in a century. The stillness of the room seemed unfamiliar to her. For once, she could not hear the chattering of maids outside her chamber, or the knights practicing swordsmanship outside her window. She winced slightly as she tried to sit up, her limps felt too heavy and awkward from the lack of use. As she laid down once again to allow her body to adjust, she took notice of the condition of her room. Her mouth opened in horror, and a silent scream escaped her mouth. Her once lovely chamber was now beyond filthy, the once expensive oak wood table seemed rotten by dampness and it was filled with numerous holes bitten by termites, and the once elegant drapes were now scattered lose and very thin.

Her eyes darted wildly around the room. To her dismay, she found no one else except for herself. Terrified, her body shivered. She was not used to being alone in her chamber, since it was customary to have at least one or two maids in with her. Hurriedly, the young woman leaped off the bed, and as she did so, she found her knees buckling from the sudden pressure. She held on to the mossy aged wall to support herself, and not daring to look anywhere else but ahead, she made her way across the room to the door.

Gently, she pushed opened the heavy oak doors. Her senses were all too well aware of the unnatural silence. She was not and never will be prepared for the sight that greeted her. Her entire body froze, as a sudden shock as and immense pain filled her. There, lying right outside her chamber were four skeletons wearing the rotted uniform that resembled the castle guards.

Her chest tightened as she recognized one of the guards, the one with the sapphire ring, and an inevitable sob escaped her throat, as tears streamed from her eyes. She tired to will herself to believe that it was not true, that it was nothing but a nightmare, just a terrifying nightmare. However, the truth was could not have been less, but much too clear in front her, and the wetness of down her cheek was all but just further proof of the reality. Her body slumped down to the floor, as she pulled the skeleton closer to her body. Her throat became too tight to swallow as she cradled it against herself. She no longer cared why the wish didn't come true, for that moment, nothing else mattered more than the fact that she realized that he was dead…

It seemed that the world has abandoned her. The unbearable pain of loneliness grasped her. Never in her lifetime had she felt so helpless… so utterly alone. Slowly, she leaned forward and kissed the smooth white cheekbones…

Then she died.

_This was the truth untold in the famous tale of Sleeping Beauty. There was no dazzling prince charming that woke princess from her century's sleep, with a kiss of true love._

_For the truth was that she woke up alone only to find that everyone else in the castle died. The twelfth fairy did not say that the castle would fall asleep with her nor did she say that the princess' true love will a dazzling prince that will be able to rescue her a century from now. How could they have known? That the Princess' true love was her childhood friend? How could they have known that he continued to protect her until mortality took away his life?_

_When she found him, she was so grief stricken that she couldn't have cared more or less if he was a skeleton and kissed him. After that, like the fairy said, she truly woke up, as she found herself in front of the gates of heaven. There, her true love welcomed her, it was also where the entire kingdom had been waiting for her. There, they rejoiced, and, and it was also there, where it comes to happily ever after._


End file.
